As a fan of Max Boyce I think that his Welsh humour empathizes - TopicsExpress



          

As a fan of Max Boyce I think that his Welsh humour empathizes with our ability to laugh at ourselves which most Rhondda people would agree with. I last heard this joke of Max Boyce’s 40 years ago so please excuse my errors and interpretation if I’ve got it wrong. The Poverty Pit by Max Boyce. Ianto was unemployed and desperately needed a job, his mate Dia suggested that he visited the Cwm Dare pit as they were looking for coal face hewers. The next morning he turned up to find out that there were no pit baths or changing rooms to keep his clean clothes. He spoke to a fellow collier who said don’t you know this is the poverty pit and we can’t afford pit baths so stick your clothes under that tarpaulin over there and they’ll be okay. His miner’s lamp was also a poor copy of a Davy lamp and to make matters worse there was no cage to descend into the mine, he asked the banksman why and he said, “It’s the poverty pit we can’t afford one”. He said, “don’t worry just climb down that rope ladder you’ll be okay”. The coal face was dark, lit only by the dim glow of the miner’s lamps making it difficult to see more than a few feet. Ianto had not been there long when he heard a strange sound, a rushing sound that got louder and louder. Whoosh, whoosh it went; then the whooshing died away. A few minutes later Ianto heard it again, louder this time and quite close by; he swung his miner’s lamp to try and see where it came from. It was then that he saw it. A bat. A huge bat with a 4 foot wingspan, he quietly shat himself with fright. Being religious he didn’t usually swear except on this occasion, he muttered an obscenity and thought next time I’ll get that bugger. Sure enough a few minutes late the whooshing sound returned. Ianto propped up his lamp against the pit face wall and waited for its return. Then he raised his shovel, and as it passed by him he wacked it good and proper like, killing it outright. Only a few minutes later there was one hell of a rumpus as men further up the face came by. Ianto said, “What’s up”? “Come on”, they said, “we are all walking out”. “Why?” asked Ianto “Cos the fan has stopped” was the reply.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Sep 2014 12:22:18 +0000

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